quintet

Quintet comes from French quintette, borrowed from Italian quintetto, a diminutive of quinto meaning 'fifth,' which traces back to Latin quintus, related to quīnque, 'five.'

The word moved from Latin's number 'five' into Italian's 'fifth,' then narrowed into a musical diminutive term before French and English adopted it to mean a group of five performers.

It shares its root with quintus and quīnque, the Latin ancestors behind English words built on 'five,' like quintuple.